Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving was wonderful!! I couldn't have asked for a better day! This year I decided to host. I am not sure why exactly I thought that was going to be fun or easy, but before I thought it through invited everyone. I ended up having about 20 people over. After everyone was invited, I became a little nervous. I have NEVER made a turkey before. I worried that I would run out of food. What was I thinking!! :) However, everything was wonderful!! The day before I subbed at the Gingerbread house. Which was a BLAST!! (And then that night I won a TV- see post before this one) But in relation to Thanksgiving Matt and I set all the tables and got as much done as we could. Matt's mom even came over to help get thing ready. Very thankful for that!!

Thanksgiving day I made the turkey. And I am so proud!! It turned out perfect! Now I wonder why I haven't done that before. It was so easy!!

The guests came around lunchtime. I was happy that my aunt Jane and uncle Bert were able to make it up from Kansas to join in on the fun!! But was sad that my Uncle Harry was sick and couldn't enjoy the fun. Zach was so excited for the party to begin! He started to do a turkey dance.

When everyone arrived, we chatted and played legos until the food was all ready.

Then, we all ate the yummy and delicious food!!

We toasted to being together.

Here is Alex's dinner. His eating habits kill me!! :) Out of all that delicious food all he ate was grapes and rolls?!?!

After dinner, some of us played the wii.

Grandma and Josh
There was even a pillow fight at one point.

Desserts were served.

One of the things that I was thankful for was the cool day. I had to use my deck as a refrigerator. There was NO WAY all that food was going to fit in my fridge! Here I was worried about running out of food. Silly me!!!

By the end of the day, we were all word out!!

Zach

So Thanksgiving has come and gone....now onto the next holiday!! The rest of the weekend was a whirlwind. We are getting our house ready to put up for sale soon, so we did things to get ready for that. We shopped a little. I went to the gym a couple of times to counteract all the food I ate on Thursday. I went out to breakfast with friends. We put the lights up outside and decorated the tree.

Of course our tree isn't complete without my frog on top!

To end the weekend we took the boys to see Santa. Before we left, Josh made a picture for Santa, which I thought was really sweet.

In case you can't read his note, it says "Josh Venn To I heart U Santa"
And then we were off to see Santa. We went to Bass Pro Shop. I would highly recommend taking your kids there. Not only are the pictures free, but the Santa looks REAL!! They were crazy busy that day, but they were really organized and things flowed really smoothly!! It was great! Here are the pictures I took.

Zach Josh Santa Alex

Santa Zach

Santa Josh

Santa Alex

wha..wha....WHAT!?!?!? Did that just really happen?

Wednesday night about 9pm our phone rings. Matt answered it and it was for me so he handed me the phone. The guy said, "Katrina?" I said, "Yes?" He said "Is that how you pronounce it?" So immediately red flags go up and I was thinking dude-its 9pm. I am in my pajamas (as I am NOT a night owl) and am ready for bed. I don't want telemarketers or weirdos right now. I am hosting a rather large Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and am not in the mood. But I said "yes..." He goes, "What kind of tequila do you like?" So I just hung up on him. I am not a drinker. I don't have a favorite tequila. I think its creepy that a telemarketer would call and ask me about tequila and my love for it. And then the guy calls back. This time Matt answered the phone. The man asked if he could talk to me and Matt said "NO" and hung up. And then the guy calls AGAIN!!! Now I am pissed! I am thinking that I am going to give this guy a piece of my mind and am ready to call the police if this continues (as some of you may know I have had other harassing phone calls and needed to get the police involved before...so my thoughts were NOT AGAIN!!) So I put my big girl panties on and was ready to tell this guy off. So I say "HELLO!!!" (not nicely I might add) And the man goes "WAIT! Don't hang up!!" I go "WHO IS THIS?!?!" (again not nicely) He said he was a chef at a local restaurant and was wondering if I had dined at Julio's this past month. I said that I had and wanted to know why. He asked if I had ordered a margarita. I said yes and again wanted to know why. Keep in mind I was still in no mood for any of this and wasn't very nice at all. He asked if I would say that I like Herradura Tequila. So I humored him and did. And then he said "You just won a 42" flat screen TV"......pause.....I go "OHMYGOD I am SO SORRY I hung up on you...a lot." Then everything clicked into place. About a month ago Matt and I took the boys and dined at Julio's...which is now my favorite restaurant by the way. Everyone should go there!!.....I ordered a maragrita and they said that if I upgraded to the Herradura Maragrita at no extra cost that my name would be entered into a drawing for a TV. I said sure why not. And then never gave it another thought as I have NEVER won ANYTHING!!! So now I can officially say I have won something big and I LOVE Julios and my new TV!! Matt and I are still in shock that all this happened. Crazy huh?

On a side note. Matt and I went to pick up the TV today. Everyone there was really nice about it and thought that it was hilarious that I kept hanging up on the guy. Thanks again Julio's! Best margarita I have EVER had!!

Andi's Baptism

Some good friends of ours asked Matt and I to be Godparents of their daughter, Andi. I have to say that we are really honored that they asked us. It means a lot to us. Last Sunday was Andi's baptism. The ceremony was very nice. It was a private Catholic ceremony. Andi wore Katie's baptism gown with really cute silver shoes.

I thought she did really well! She didn't cry at all, until the very end.

Which of course, was when we all wanted to take pictures with her.

The grandparents:

After the ceremony, Drew and Katie had a late lunch at their house. We found a spot out of the way to put the boys.

If you notice their plates, this is so typical of what they eat. Zach and Josh will usually try anything. They are both for the most part decent eaters. Alex on the other hand only ate grapes.

Later, Katie opened the gifts. Needless to say, the boys enjoyed that.

They also played with another little boy that was 17 months old. They all kept each other entertained.

Of course, everyone wanted to hold the big star of the day!!

Alex and Andi

Josh and Andi

Zach and Andi This picture makes me smile. Zach couldn't understand why Andi would cry when he held her. The look on his face is awesome!

Matt and Andi

Katrina and Andi Picture taken by Alex

We had a really great afternoon. I thought they party was great! Delicious food, great friends and a cute baby makes it pretty perfect I think!! And of course the day couldn't end without giving Fozzie big hugs!!

A Fun and Productive Couple of Days!

By the end of this week, we were all really tired. I am not exactly sure why. It's not like our week was extra super busy. We had our normal fill of things like play dates, swimming lessons, preschool, etc. Maybe it was because we had such a full weekend before that we didn't start out on a full tank. Who knows!? But by Friday we were tired! So we decided to do a family movie night. Matt and I thought that having a picnic in the family room while watching the movie Up sounded like fun! So we told the boys about our idea and they were really excited about this. Mostly because we have never let them eat a meal in front of the tv! I laid down a blanket, made a few sandwiches, put some chips on their plates and we were set.

It was fun. I thought the movie was really cute. The boys liked it for the most part. Alex didn't like the thunder storms and none of them cared for the mean dogs in the movie. Other than that, they seemed to like it. It was a great night. After they were done eating we all snuggled up on the couch together. I have to admit I really liked being couch potatoes that night!!

Saturday was REALLY productive! I have to admit I am quite proud of ourselves! I needed to go to UNO to work on my school stuff. I am really excited to pretty much be done. I have one little thing left to do and I am finished!! That morning I had to meet with my professor to make sure I was on the right track with my research paper- which thankfully I am. Then I marched myself to the computer lab and finished that bad boy up! Whew!! That was quite painful. I can honestly say I will never be a researcher!! There is NOTHING fun or exciting about that process! After the paper, I finished up the power point presentation that I need to do for the LAST class! I cannot tell you how excited I am for it to be the LAST class! Not only am I almost done with that horrid class but that also means I am only one semester away from finishing my masters!!! WOOO HOOO!!! I was kicked out of the lab at 1ish...as they were closing- but luckily I was pretty much done...and came home. While I was at school, Matt started to stain our deck. Luckily, Matt's parents were kind enough to hang out with the boys while I was at school and Matt was working hard. When I got home, Matt was still working on the deck and the boys were out with the grandparents, so I quickly changed clothes and helped him finish up. I have to admit the deck looks pretty nice! I kind of wish we would have done that sooner! :) Ronna and Larry came back with the boys just as Matt and I were about done. They had taken them to Krispy Kreme, a couple of parks, etc. They seemed to have a nice time. Since Matt and I were almost done, they were nice enough to stay until we finished. We finished about 3:30 and had just enough time to clean up and change before our friends the Surles came over at 4.

We had a great time that night!

Happy Chad and Missy

As fun as it was, it was loud. Not in a bad way-unless you like things quiet-like if you are a librarian or something. But how could it not be loud as there were 5 boys (four 5 yr olds and a 2 yr old) and a 11 month old girl!! But it was awesome!! The boys played great together. I don't remember having to break up one disagreement! They started out playing the Wii but that didn't last long. They mostly played with the Batman stuff.

They would go from playing upstairs, to the main floor, to the basement. It was great. They never got bored and had a fantastic time! There were even quite a few moments when the adults could chat!! We ordered pizza and ate brownies.

All of which were delicious! Little Sophie would crawl to the boys to check out what they were doing, then crawl to the adults to see what we were doing.

She is a cutie!! Full of smiles!! After we all ate, the adults chatted the night away and the boys did their boy games. Like playing with cars and trucks, hulk hands, and these pincher things.

Personally, I didn't think this looked like fun. But they sure did! :) Must be a boy thing!

By the end of the night, they were all exhausted from playing so hard! It was great!! For us, bedtime was a snap! Hopefully it was for Chad and Missy too!!